Charged £40 by Co-op but NOT overdrawn??

Fenchurch81

Hi there, I hope someone can help me...

Due to it being post Christmas I didn't have enough in my account to cover two direct debits - one of £10.40 and one of £15 that should have gone out this week. One was Tuesday and one Wednesday - my pay went in Thursday. I know it's my own stupidity for not keeping a closer eye, but still! Co-op declined both these transactions and charged me £19.50 for each.

I only have a cashminder account with Co-op so it isn't possible to go overdrawn, but I don't think that it's fair to charge me £19.50 per item just to write a snotty letter to me to say they wouldn't pay them and accusing me of 'absing' my account facility(?!), any ideas? Is it worth writing to the Co-op bank to say as it's the first time this has happened they should cancel the charges, and if so - any good letter tips?

Christ, if I had a spare £40 a month I wouldn't be in a state to require a cashminder account.

davidgmmafan

Well if you've not had charges before I'd write a fairly mild letter pointing out that it was an oversight and that it won't happen again.

Your position is partly the basis of the campaign, they have charged you for performing no work at all. However my own personal feeling is, in the current climate (with the banks having won one) a goodwill gesture would be the best thing to shoot for.

If things are tight then you may want to consider if DD is the best payment method for you. For example on my water bill I get a discount of £6 annually for paying by DD, so the slightest slip up would generate a charge of many times that amount.

BTW I believe most banks would charge even if the funds hit the account on the same day, such is thier ingenuity in generating charges.